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THE UNIVERSITY DANLY KANSAS
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 5, 2006
HOMECOMING
11C
"KU has so many awesome people, which makes everything from class to going out enjoyable,"
Ryan McGeeney/KAMSAN
Billy Griffith, Wichita senior
Billy Griffith, Wichita senior, transferred to the University of Kansas from Trinity University in San Antonio to be closer to home and family. Majoring in political science, Griffith has applied to graduate and law programs at the University and other schools as well.
HAIL TO NEW KU?
BY LINDSAY WAPLES
A new wave of students has just arrived from around the country to start a new academic year at the University of Kansas. The majority of these students have just graduated from high school and are about to experience the radically-different-than-home college lifestyle.
Freshmen are like newborns; they are absorbing their first college experiences like they have never lived before. They move into their dorms and Greek houses, they go to their first football game, they nervously hand over their fake IDs to bouncers at the Hawk, hoping they'll get a chance to discover if the "Boom Boom room" is as cool as its name. Every Friday these newcomers go to their classes in Budig Hall ready to make plans for the weekend.
Less conspicuous in a classroom, however, is that student timidly sitting in the back row of a classroom who does not look so bright eyed and eager. This student is a stranger in a room of friends who have been in the same classes together for the last three years. No, this student
didn't fail out of the School of Business; this student is a transfer student. Transfers students are forgotten at the University. At a sporting event they are the ones looking around confused and panicked as the waving crimson and blue mass loudly chants the fight song and sings the alma mater. Transfers do not swim in the Chi Omega fountain, and they don't understand why their friends cringed when they walked underneath the Campanile on the way to class.
Transfer students may miss out on being initiated to the University traditions, but that doesn't mean that they won't adopt them with time. It may seem difficult for a non-transfer student to comprehend, but it takes time for transfers to feel comfortable with the new traditions and let go of their previous ones. It is like starting a new relationship or coming to the party when it's halfway finished. Transfer students have a different perspective of the University than non transfers because they have other college experience to compare. So does the University or the old universities prevail in the hearts of the transfer students? The answers may be surprising.
Billy Griffith transferred to the University from Trinity University in San Antonio in 2004 midway through his sophomore year. The Wichita native originally decided to attend Trinity because of its first-rate academics and his involvement in athletics. Despite these factors, Griffith decided that Texas just was not the place for him.
"I transferred to KU because I didn't like Texas," he said. "I'd always been a fan of KU and wanted to go here."
The transition to a new school was more or less smooth for Griffith, though at first he had to adjust to attending a public university that was much larger than his small private university. He said one of the drawbacks to Trinity was its small size, but attending a larger university presented its problems for Griffith as well.
"The bureaucracy of KU has a tendency to make students just feel like a number and a source of income for the University," he said.
He also felt that as a transfer student he was at a slight disadvantage to meet people. The greek tradition at the University is more popular than at his former university, and Griffith felt he would have made friends quicker if he was greek. These adjustments did not hold him back for long, however.
Lindsay McCurley has also
come to love the social scene at the University. McCurley, Fort Scott junior, transferred from DePaul University in Chicago. Though she said that she misses all of the exciting activities that the city had to offer, DePaul did not have the same college feel as the University.
It has been easy for McCurley to adjust to being a Jayhawk. She said in a showdown between the University and DePaul, she would definitely be wearing crimson and blue, though she wouldn't be upset if the Jayhawks lost.
"The sports are so much better here, and the activities that center on them, like tailgating and waving the wheat," she said. "The next day in class at DePaul you talked about the White Sox or the Cubs, not if DePaul won or lost."
McCurley has no regrets about transferring and can not say enough good things about her new college.
"KU definitely has better traditions," she said. "It has everything from basketball traditions to bar ones. DePaul was a private college that was geared towards individuality and not unity of its students though traditions."
Griffith agrees that the traditions at the University are hard to beat.
When asked if he could sing the fight song or alma mater, he chuckled and said, "I can tell you KU really is far above the golden valley, glorious to view."
Griffith loves everything about
the University from the sports to the city of Lawrence. McCurley cannot sing the fight song, but neither student thinks that it really matters.
"KU has so many awesome people, which makes everything from class to going out enjoyable," he said.
Though transferring to a new college can be difficult, the students who have transferred have decided that it was worth starting their college lives over. Transfer students face many obstacles that some incoming freshmen do not have to deal with.
on their transcripts that they have to find something to do with. In most cases, transfer students lose credit for classes that they studied and slaved away for when they transfer to the University because the requirements and academic standards are different. Despite all of the changes, students say they are pleased with their decisions.
Though initially they did not want to go to the University, Griffith and McCurley are glad that they did.
Freshmen start on an even playing field because they are all close to the same age and are experiencing the University for the first time together. Freshmen also arrive at the University with a fresh academic slate. Transfers already have semesters of credit
McCurley said, with a grin, "KU makes it hard to graduate in four years. KU just might make me a seventh year senior."
Kansan correspondent writer Lindsay Waples can be contacted at editor@kansan.com.
Edited by Janiece Gatson